HYDRA - Hydrogels for Aerosol Capture

气溶胶取样技术可以从空气中收集病原体进行分析和鉴定。干式采集效率较差，会因撞击和脱水对样品造成损害。设计出保护生物气溶胶样本和优化活病原体回收的新材料将是革命性的。病毒和细菌已经进化到能够熟练地入侵并在粘液等天然水凝胶中存活，这表明水凝胶具有维持生物气溶胶样本生存能力的先天能力。合成水凝胶具有可调的物理化学性质，可用于这项任务的精密工程。此外，存在的水环境允许对凝胶本身内的气溶胶进行生物测定。该项目将结合气溶胶科学、工程和聚合物化学来制造具有软水凝胶成分的气溶胶捕获装置。主要问题包括：如何将材料与设备配对以实现最佳收集？什么样的聚合物化学可以捕获最多的生物气溶胶而不会造成伤害？哪些分析内容的方法将允许远程监控？表面结构会影响收集吗？这些设备在现场的表现如何？通过解决这些问题，我们希望朝着一项重大的科学挑战迈出重要的一步：实时监测空气传播的生物威胁，以保护健康。

Aerosol sampling techniques can collect pathogens from the air for analysis and identification. Dry collection has poor collection efficiency and causes damage to the sample through impaction and dehydration. Engineering new materials that protect a bioaerosol sample and optimise recovery of viable pathogens would be transformative. Viruses and bacteria have evolved to become adept at invading, and remaining viable inside, natural hydrogels like mucus, suggesting hydrogels possess an innate ability to sustain the viability of a bioaerosol sample. Synthetic hydrogels have tuneable physicochemical properties to allow precision engineering for this task. Furthermore, the aqueous environment present allows bioassays for identification of aerosols within the gel itself. This project will combine aerosol science, engineering and polymer chemistry to generate aerosol capture devices with soft hydrogel components. Major questions include: How can the materials be paired with a device for optimal collection? What polymer chemistry captures the most bioaerosols without causing harm? Which approaches to assaying contents will allow for remote monitoring? Do Surface structures effect collection? How will these devices perform in the field? By addressing these questions, we hope to take a significant step towards a big scientific challenge: real-time monitoring of biological airborne threats for the protection of health.